In addition to the parish an electoral ward exists titled St Keverne and Meneage. This stretches to the western Lizard coast at Gunwalloe. The population of the ward at the 2011 election was 5,220.

The Cornish Rebellion of 1497 started in St Keverne. The leader of the rebellion Michael An Gof ("the smith" in Cornish) was a blacksmith from St Keverne and is commemorated by a statue in the village. Before his execution, An Gof said that he should have "a name perpetual and a fame permanent and immortal". In 1997 a 500th anniversary march, "Keskerdh Kernow 500", celebrating the An Gof uprising, retraced the route of the original march from St Keverne, via Guildford to London.

The parish is a large one. It includes some 10 miles of coast from Nare Point at the mouth of the Helford River to Kennack Sands, and The Manacles offshore. Settlements on the coast include Porthallow, Porthoustock and Coverack. Inland the parish includes the hamlets of Zoar, Laddenvean, Traboe, Trelan and Gwenter. The eastern part of Goonhilly Downs is also in the parish.

Research Tips

"CornwallMapOfParishesOnTheLizard" by Andy F

One of the many maps available on A Vision of Britain through Time is one from the Ordnance Survey Series of 1900 illustrating the parish boundaries of Cornwall at the turn of the 20th century. This map blows up to show all the parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets.

The following websites have pages explaining their provisions in WeRelate's Repository Section. Some provide free online databases.